Patterns of acute leukaemia occurrence among children in the Chernobyl region.

BACKGROUND: The Chernobyl nuclear accident of 1986 released large quantities of radioactive material causing widespread contamination. In the Ukraine alone, more than 4 million people were exposed to radiation. The exact health consequences of this exposure are still being assessed. METHODS: To ascertain the effect of in utero radiation exposure and the development of leukaemia, a review was undertaken of leukaemia sub-types occurring among children born in the year of the accident (1986) and followed 10 years post-exposure. A comparison was made of leukaemia cumulative incidence rates among children from both an exposed and unexposed oblast. RESULTS: Rate ratios (RR) for the all cell types grouping of leukaemia revealed that rates in the exposed Oblast were significantly elevated for females, males and both genders combined. Rates of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) were dramatically elevated for males and to a lesser extent for females. For both genders combined, the RR for ALL was more than three times greater in the exposed compared to the unexposed region. CONCLUSION: Study results suggest that the increased risk of leukaemia and acute leukaemia among those children born in 1986 and resident in radioactively contaminated territories may be associated with exposure to radiation resulting from the Chernobyl accident.

[The functional brain characteristics of people working within the 30-kilometer area of the Chernobyl Atomic Electric Power Station from the viewpoint of age-related changes]. / Osobennosti funktsional'nogo sostoianiia golovnogo mozga u lits, rabotaiushchikh v usloviiakh 30-kilometrovoi zony Chernobyl'skoi AES, s tochki zreniia vozrastnykh izmenenii.

Features of the brain functional status were evaluated by mapping of spontaneous and evoked electrical activity of the brain as were the processes of aging of the nervous system, in 402 individuals who have been working within 30-km of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station (CNPS), 100 participants in combat in Afghanistan and 20 healthy residents from regions with pollution-free ecological environment. In subjects who had been at the CNPS distinguishing features were noted of the electrical activity of the brain at rest and in the process of processing of sensory information, which were manifested by alterations in interhemispheric and cortico-subcortical relations and were not associated with age but were dependent on a radiation dose. At the same time CNS functional age corresponds to an older age in the irradiated subjects aged under 35 and to a younger one in those over 35 years of age.

[Late effects of psychogenic and radiation factors of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on the functional state of human brain]. / Otdalennye posledstviia psikhogennogo i radiatsionnogo faktorov avarii na Chernobyl'skoi AES na funktsional'noe sostoianie golovnogo mozga cheloveka.

As many as 97 persons, victims to the Chernobyl accident, who developed vegetative dystonia were examined by clinical, ++patho-psychological and electroencephalography methods. 24 patients with vegetative dystonia who had not taken part in the liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident and not lived in the zones of alienation and radioactive contamination were examined too. In the victims to the Chernobyl accident, vegetovascular dystonia was marked by certain clinical and neurophysiological peculiarities in the form of combined vegetative disturbances and hypochondriac symptoms, signs of the schizoform organic syndrome with diffuse disorders of brain bioelectric activity and irritation of the subcortical structures. The contribution of psychogenic and prolonged ionizing radiation to the formation of changes in brain function in victims to the Chernobyl accident is under consideration.

[Correlations of cognition disorders and the EEG data in elderly patients with circulatory encephalopathy]. / Korreliatsiia intellektual'nykh narushenii i dannykh EEG pri dis- tsirkuliatornoi éntsefalopatii u lits pozhilogo vozrasta.

The possibilities of the use of electroencephalography for evaluating intellectual-mnemonic disorders in elderly patients with cerebral atherosclerosis have been studied. The study included 95 subjects aged 60 to 74 years with varying intensity of circulatory atherosclerotic encephalopathy (without brain stroke). The psychological tests were performed according to Wechsler's methods. To evaluate the EEG, visual and automatic spectral analyses were employed. The data obtained were analyzed by means of discriminant, correlation and regression methods. A certain relationship was found between the results of the psychological tests and the EEG readings. The method of automatic EEG analysis is proposed, which allows revealing intellectual disorders in patients suffering from cerebral atherosclerosis. Its comparability with the data obtained by means of visual EEG analysis is discussed.